Edarea was terrified. That was the part she had not expected to feel so clearly.
She had fought enough people to understand fear in other bodies. She watched armies panic and people beg for mercy when they realized they had been outmatched but this?
Greshina had not even used her full power on her and that was what made it humiliating. They were the same rank in the abstract sense, but Greshina had still crushed her so easily it almost felt insulting to the concept of resistance itself.
Edarea Avinaris—no, not yet, not fully—was on her knees now, breathing hard, trying to keep some dignity together with sheer desperation. The palace had already been ruined. The floor had caved in around them. Smoke drifted through the broken air. The battlefield noise from outside still reached them in waves but down here it felt distant.
"Please. Keep me alive."
Greshina stared at her like she had just said something deeply stupid. Edarea rushed the words out before she could be dismissed.
"I know about the Ravagers. I know where they're searching. I know they're looking for Luminescent. Virathus is looking for him too. I can help you. I can be useful. I can help track them. I can help with the Transmigrators. I can help with the city. I can help with whatever happens next."
Greshina scoffed. It was a cold, ugly sound.
"Is this really my transmigrated version? Pathetic."
Before she could say anything else, Greshina knelt. She reached out and patted Edarea's cheek like she was handling something small and stupid. Then she leaned in and kissed her on the lips.
Edarea froze.
Why? What was this? Was it some kind of trick? Some kind of humiliation?
Her mind stumbled through possibilities too fast to form any of them properly but the answer arrived far too late. Her eyes rolled back.
She tried to struggle but it was already over. Greshina's kiss had carried the finality of a death sentence and whatever she had done inside that moment had already taken root. Edarea's limbs went slack. Her breath caught once, then stopped. The strength drained out of her so suddenly that her body became limp in Greshina's hand.
When Greshina finally let go, Edarea collapsed to the floor without any grace at all. Her body turned to ash. It did not even get the dignity of a corpse.
Greshina exhaled and closed her hand slowly. Her soul was complete now. She could feel it. The fragmented thing inside her that had been split across millennia and identities had finally settled into place. That realization made her laugh bitterly.
"I should have done this long ago. Maybe then, Veneri might have—"
She stopped not because she wanted to. She heard someone behind her.
"Greshina."
Greshina did not turn immediately. Her shoulders went still. Then, after a while, she looked over her shoulder at the blood-covered figure standing there in her towering five-meter form, still breathing hard from the massacre outside. Elyonari was still holding herself together, but only barely. Greshina felt the death surrounding her. She killed millions and the souls were in her Overwrite.
Greshina gave her a flat look.
"That's not my name anymore."
Greshina stood up slowly, brushing nothing from her hands because there was nothing left to brush away.
"I'm abandoning my past name. I'm Edarea Avinaris now."
That got a reaction.
"That's your answer?"
"Yes."
"Why would you take her name?"
Greshina's expression barely changed.
"Because she's dead. I'm done pretending I'm the same person I was before."
She had killed Edarea's body. She had taken the name and her place as a clean symbolic execution of the old self. Greshina was done with being the version of herself that still carried the Earth name like a chain. If she was going to move forward, then she would do it under a name that belonged to this world.
She was Edarea Avinaris now and going forward. Elyonari studied her for a moment, then let out a breath that sounded almost like sympathy.
"You're really going to do it."
"I already did."
That made Elyonari's mouth twitch but there was no humor in it. Not really. She looked exhausted in the way that only grief and slaughter can make someone exhausted. Her whole body was covered in blood and she still stood there at the edge of collapse.
She touched one of the petals of a strange white flower in her hand. It had many petals. She held it out towards Greshina—the newly named Edarea Avinaris—and her voice was softer.
"If you need help, or if you need someone to talk to, just pluck a petal and you'll sent into my Overwrite. The petals renew themselves, so you don't have to save them."
Edarea's expression shifted a little.
"Thank you."
Elyonari gave a small, tired incline of her head, then turned her shoulders as if the next thing she said would be easier if she was already halfway gone.
"I'm staying in my Overwrite for a while. I have to master my true capabilities as a Verdarite and distract myself from whatever misery this is. Take care of my brother and sister-in-law, would you? I'm a lost cause right now."
Edarea did not disagree.
Elyonari looked back at her, then at the ash on the floor where the old Edarea had just disappeared. Then Elyonari vanished into her own path, leaving Edarea Avinaris alone.
Edarea drew in one breath, steadying herself. She called for her Heralds.
The air shifted around her as five figures appeared and knelt before her. The sight of them would have once made her feel like she was standing at the edge of something bigger than herself. Now it just felt familiar.
She sighed and took the same mature expression she usually had.
"Take the souls that died here and turn them into your subordinates. It's time for new management."
°°°°°°°
EPOCH took her time looking over the aftermath.
The holographic displays around her shifted through Cassandra, Technographia, Ledatic Siliportem, Regnum Musicae and every other place the plan had struck. She saw the whole world bending around the hole Vastarael had left behind.
Then she walked closer to Vasreveilder Nov Aeteria.
He had been watching the same thing, except unlike her he looked tired in the way only someone extremely powerful could look tired. When EPOCH finally came to a stop beside him, he gave her a sideways glance, then returned his attention to the holograms.
She folded her arms and asked the obvious question.
"Was this the outcome you wanted?"
Vasreveilder answered without hesitation.
"No. Vastarael is a smart bastard. He deviated from the plan I originally made."
"Deviated how?"
"By dying properly," Vasreveilder muttered.
She stared at him for a moment, then made a confused face.
"That is such an annoying thing to say. He just got tired of sacrifices. You made Sirithiele sacrifice herself for him and did the same to Melody. Maybe he thought staying would only incur more losses."
"Maybe."
EPOCH looked at him a little more carefully after that. "You're asking yourself whether he really died."
Vasreveilder's expression went flat. "Is he?"
"Yes, in the true sense of the word. And even if he is alive in some meaningless technical sense, he is trapped forever in the Timeless Realm. It's a universal place where things lost in time are sent. So even if he existed there, he would not come out. And the Timeless Realm is managed by the Phonoroxans serving the Time Primordial. He will not escape. It is a prison after all."
Vasreveilder let that sit for a while before sighing.
"I could have saved him if it wasn't for the Vasreveilder Law."
EPOCH's mouth twitched before she laughed.
"The Primordials really are crafty. They made that law because you are too powerful. You're to never leave Spheraphase and roam the universe because you're too dangerous. If you do, every Phonoroxan in the universe will come after you."
Vasreveilder stared at her for a second.
"That sounds dramatically excessive."
"It is not."
"Am I really that powerful?"
EPOCH looked almost offended by the question.
"Yes. Even as a child, I was taught that Vasreveilder Nov Aeteria is one of the top three strongest Supreme Entities in the universe."
"Top three?"
"Universal threat classification. You're the only member of the Four Ancient Races with one hundred percent Aeterium bloodline, similar to the First Aeterium. Well, you and Vastarael. You were also once the Split of all Primordials except Time and Existence. You weaponized the power the Primordials gave you and made it your own. You're the first Supreme Entity to have control over seven Primal Forces."
That got a long pause.
"You're praising me too much."
"Am I?"
"Yes."
"You are one of the most absurdly overqualified and overpowered beings in existence."
"Still too much. All I really want are women and to have fun."
EPOCH stared at him.
"I can deliver women to you."
He actually paused. That was not the direction he expected the conversation to go and for once he was caught off guard. EPOCH, meanwhile, folded her hands behind her back like she had just made a perfectly reasonable offer about groceries.
"As a Phonoroxan of Spheraphase, I have to cater to your needs and keep you on the planet. So please don't leave. If you do, I'll be in big trouble with my superiors."
Vasreveilder squinted at her.
"That sounds suspiciously sincere."
"It is sincere."
"You're offering to bribe me with women."
"I said I'll cater to your needs."
"That is not better."
"It's more diplomatic."
"You are very welcoming compared to the other Phonoroxans."
"That's because I have better instincts."
"Or worse boundaries."
"Both can be true, yes."
"Fine. I'm not leaving."
EPOCH's expression brightened just enough to be visible.
"Good. Because I am not interested in dealing with interdimensional paperwork and a hunt order over one Supreme Entity being emotionally inconvenient."
Vasreveilder gave her a dry look.
"It's nice that my freedom is being protected by your fear of paperwork."
"It's one of the great systems of civilization. It exists across all of them too."
He laughed again, a little more openly this time. EPOCH looked back toward the floating battle feeds, then at him again.
"You really think Vastarael knew all this already."
It was not a question exactly, more like she was trying to understand how deep the man's planning went.
"He saw the future when he played the Violex."
"That part I gathered."
"He probably saw enough to know what kind of outcome he needed."
"And you think he'll be right again."
"I think he always makes sure his plans work."
"You sound oddly confident in a dead grandson."
"He's annoying like that."
"I wonder how the Ingenious Aeterium Prince is going to survive this time."
"He would hate that title."
"Exactly why I like it."
Vasreveilder looked at her, then at the battlefield holograms again, then back at her.
"So what are you going to do?"
EPOCH shrugged. "Nothing different."
"Nothing?"
She shook her head. "Vastarael must have seen the future when he played the Violex. If he chose this route, then I trust him. He's always made sure his plans work. Always. So I'm going to trust him this time too. Who knows, maybe he'll surprise me even more."
Vasreveilder was quiet for a while after that. It was long enough that EPOCH glanced at him once to make sure he had not mentally wandered off into some greater godly labyrinth of suspicion and strategy. He looked calm but she knew enough about powerful beings to know calm was often just a nicer way of saying they were rearranging reality in their heads.
Then he gave a slow, crooked smile.
"Honestly, that sounds exactly like him."
"Do you think his people will recover?"
Vasreveilder's answer came after only a brief pause. "Yes."
"Because they're strong?"
"Because they're angry."
EPOCH considered that, then laughed under her breath. "That does tend to work."
"It's one of the oldest fuels."
"You know, he really did something irritatingly clever."
"Only one thing?"
She gave him a flat look.
"Okay, sorry. Go on."
"He severed the Hidden Citadel from Spheraphase. That means the Ascension Curse won't work there anymore. The refugees trapped in Ledatic Siliportem will have children unaffected by it. The Dynasties will strengthen. Divines will give birth to Divine Rank children."
He leaned back a little and looked almost delighted by the sheer audacity of it all.
"That bastard really stole my idea of a death and made it better."
EPOCH laughed again.
"He really did. You did it to have a son who would stop the First Generation. He did it to make everyone stronger."
"I know. Anyway, do you have anything to eat or drink? As a Phonoroxan with access to any planet and civilization, I'm sure you have a lot."
"I finally managed to get some of the Aeterium food you craved. It took some time to do so since the Aeterium in their Sector are stingy fuckers."
"Of course they are. Even after millennia they still haven't changed one bit. Want some?"
"Of course. Why would I refuse a snack invitation from the all famous Vasreveilder Nov Aeteria himself?"
The two higher class beings ate crackers from another world while watching the holograms of the Hidden Citadel, awaiting for the events that would occur next.